hoodoo – Page 12 – New World Witchery – The Search for American Traditional Witchcraft

Blog Post 98 – Critter Bits (Magical Animals, Part III)

So I had mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I wanted to talk a little about the use of animal parts in magic. Animals and magic have gone hand-in-hand for a very long time. The reading of entrails from ritually slaughtered animals has been used as a divination technique since at least the pre-Roman era. Talismans designed to imbue the carrier with the particular power of an animal were often made from that animal’s fur, bone, or skin. Owen Davies chronicles the frequent use of virgin parchment—a type of scroll medium made from a highly treated animal skin, usually from a creature like a lamb or goat—in the construction of ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean grimoires (in his book appropriately entitled Grimoires). The thought was that this particular material would endow whatever was written on it with an extra layer of power, thereby charging sigils, elevating incantations, and generally adding a little va-voom to the inscribed workings of magicians.

On North American soil, many of the old rituals and magical practices found in places like Europe and Africa took root. Some of them changed quite a bit as they grew here, and some stayed more or less recognizable. I thought a brief survey of the common animal curios used in witchcraft—both folklorically and practically—might be a good way of seeing the connection between critters and crafting. Please take note now, I AM NOT ADVOCATING THE INJURY, SENSELESS SLAUGHTER, TORTURE, OR HARM OF ANY ANIMAL. This information is for educational purposes. If you choose to use this information in your own practice, please do so responsibly and without resorting to cruelty. There are lots of ways to gather magical tools and ingredients from animals which are already dead (see Ms. Graveyard Dirt’s excellent site for some great examples). Okay, now that that’s out of the way, let’s look at some of these critter bits:

1) Rabbit’s Foot – We’ve covered this here in the podcast (on Episode #13) and the blog (in the Lucky Rabbit’s Foot entry), so I won’t spend a lot of electrons on it here. It suffices to say that the rabbit’s foot remains one of the most popular luck charms in the canon of animal curios. It may have significant underworld ties, and it may simply be related to speed and fertility. Whatever its originally intended meaning, it stands for good luck now, especially in gambling.

2) Toad’s Bone/Black Cat Bone – These are some of the darkest and most disturbing of animal curios, as the rituals required to obtain them are brutal. The Toad’s Bone is mostly found in British magical lore, and was written about extensively by Andrew Chumbley, former Magister of the Cultus Sabbati. Scholar Ronald Hutton also details the significance of this bone to members of the Toadsmen, a secret society along the lines of Freemasonry, in his excellent history of modern witchcraft Triumph of the Moon. This ritual artifact was obtained (at least in one version—there are multiple ways this ritual can play out, depending on what source you look to) by burying a toad alive in an anthill and letting the ants strip it down to the bones. The bones are then taken to a stream and floated one by one until one bone floats agains the current. This bone is then the magic bone, and can imbue the witch carrying it with all sorts of interesting powers from spirit summoning to invisibility. The black cat version of this same rite is even more gruesome. As it is recounted in Mules & Men by Zora Neale Hurston, the cat is thrown into a pot of boiling water (also alive), and cooked until all the flesh falls from the bones. The bones are then either floated in a stream (the same as the toad’s bones) or passed under the tongue of the magician. The magic bone in this tradition turns the user invisible, and can also be used in some powerful love spells. Most places selling this bone today are actually selling chicken bones painted black, and hopefully few people are actually performing this ritual as it occurs in folklore. Again, I don’t condone this rite, and present it as a curiosity of history and culture rather than a suggested magical practice.

3) Racoon Penis Bone – This is a popular charm in hoodoo, used in luck and love magic. The bone itself, which is usually very thin and has a curved shape, has no disturbing ritual for obtaining it, but can simply be taken from an animal killed for meat or even from a roadkill hit (though I’d suggest being very careful how you handle remains of this nature, as they can often be riddled with diseases). Cat Yronwode suggests that this particular curio entered American magical practice by way of Native American sources, and points out that the Pawnee often placed these bones along with ears of corn into sacred bundles. I’ve heard that in the Appalachian and Ozark Mountains, it was common for boys to give girls these bones on red thread necklaces as love tokens (though I’ve not yet found a primary source for this claim). Raccoons are not the only animal to have this bone—or “baculum”—and in fact many mamal species have it. Other animals like foxes and dogs also have these bones, and occasionally these will turn up in magical charms, too.

4) Rattlesnake Rattle – Snakes in general have a lot of lore about them, but the rattlesnake is particularly of note because its rattlemakes it a unique member of its family. The rattles themselves have been collected for years as lucky charms. Cat Yronwode suggests uses including:

A charm to help musicians play well
A simple “Live Things in You” curse
A personal power token
A gambling charm to bring luck

Rattlesnake rattles are fairly delicate things, especially once they’ve been dessicated for use in crafts and magic. You can occasionally find one which has been turned into a key ring or charm, but the best way to handle these is to put them in a little vial or a small box of some kind and carry that with you.

5) Snake Fangs/Bones/Skin – As I said earlier, snakes generally have all sorts of magical connotations. You can look back at our blog entry on them (Snakes) and find out a good bit there, but here are some highlights:

Fangs can be worn as necklaces or carried as tokens of protection (from snakebite in some cases)
The bones or skin can be powdered and added to food to cause a “Live Things in You” curse
The skin of a snake soaked in vinegar can be used to treat boils in the Ozark magical tradition
The shed skins can be powdered and added to all sorts of crossing and jinxing formulae, including goofer dust and a variant on hot foot powder

Many pet stores will happily give you any leftover snake sheds they have if you call and ask politely, and if you develop a good enough relationship, you can sometimes wrangle dead snakes and/or bones out of them, too. Roadkilled snakes are also good, but be absolutely sure they’re dead before approaching them.

6) Dog/Cat Hair – These curios are nice because the animals don’t have to be hurt to acquire them. Usually black hair is used, and preferably from all-black animals. When the two hair types are mixed together in a mojo bag or vinegar jar, they can cause people to fight “like cats and dogs.” Black cat hair can also be used to gain good luck, and black dog hair can be used to inspire feelings of loyalty or obedience in others. If you have a black cat or dog, you probably have plenty of this available to you on furniture, carpet, etc. (I speak from experience here). If you don’t, you might find a friend who does and see if they will let you have some of it for use in your magical workings. At worst, you might have to snip off a little from the animal, but thankfully that does no harm (unless it’s the middle of winter and you leave a bald patch—don’t do that).

7) Chicken Legs/Feet/Feathers – Chickens are popular creatures for magic, mostly because they are expendable (I call them like I see them) and ubiquitous. Black hens and their feathers are wonderful for curse-breaking, according to Cat Yronwode. Starr Casas, a notable rootworker from Texas, often speaks of using chicken legs or feet during cleansing work. Even just having chickens can be particularly magical, since they will scratch up and destroy any curses laid for you on your property. A Pow-wow charm from John George Hohman suggests that you do the following to prevent house-fires:

Take a black chicken, in the morning or evening, cut its head off and throw it upon the ground; cut its stomach out, yet leave it altogether; then try to get a piece of a shirt which was worn by a chaste virgin during her terms, and cut out a piece as large as a common dish from that part which is bloodiest. These two things wrap up together, then try to get an egg which was laid on maunday{sic} Thursday. These three things put together in wax; then put them in a pot holding eight quarts, and bury it under the threshold of your house, with the aid of God, and as long as there remains a single stick of your house together, no conflagration will happen. If your house should happen to be on fire already in front and behind, the fire will nevertheless do no injury to you nor to your children. This is done by the power of God, and is quite certain and infallible. If fire should break out unexpectedly, then try to get a whole shirt in which your servant-maid had her terms or a sheet on which a child was born, and throw it into the fire, wrapped up in a bundle, and without saying anything. This will certainly stop it. (#114)

The chicken’s wings can also be used to make a fan which some magical folk use to direct smoke during spiritual fumigations. So popular is this animal in magic that one of my favorite grimoires is actually called The Black Pullet (a pullet being another name for a hen).

8) Eggs – These are often used for spiritual cleansing, across several traditions. In Mexican folk healing (curanderismo), an egg can be used to sweep, massage, and mark a person’s body to remove the Evil Eye (mal ojo) or harmful witchcraft. The egg can also be “read” after this process to determine things like spiritual attachments, disease, bad luck, etc. Another Pow-wow cure with a curious resemblance to the Toad’s Bone ritual earlier mentioned directs anyone suffering from failing health to catch rain water in a pot before sunrise without speaking to anyone, boil an egg in it, poke holes in the shell, and leave the egg on an anthill to be devoured. This will supposedly allow the ailment to be “eaten” by the ants. Eggshells also have some magical significance. When powdered, they become cascarilla, which is used in Afro-Caribbean magic. Cat Yronwode also lists several really interesting spells that can be done with black hens’ eggs. For example, boiling a black hen’s egg and feeding half to a black cat and half to a black dog while saying two people’s names will cause them to have a falling out. There is also a rather fascinating magical detective spell that can be done by placing an egg in each of a murder victim’s hands. After the burial, the eggs will rot and eventually burst, at which time the murderer will return and be caught.

9) Animal Fat – This is less of a curio than an ingredient, and the different fats from different animals (often referred to as that animal’s “grease”) have distinct properties. According to Hoodoo Herb & Root Magic, “Rattlesnake fat is a powerful ointment. Rub it on any painful body part, or stroke the whole body downward to expel conjure poisons” (p. 162). Ozark healers commonly used “skunk grease” to cure various rhumetoid conditions. Vance Randolph says “The grease from skunks or civet cats, mixed with peppermint leaves, is highly praised by some hillfolk as a lubricant for rheumatic joints. It is said that the fat of a male wildcat is best of all” (OM&F, p. 108). In Pow-wow magic, a range of animal fats is used to make a potent anti-rust treatment for firearms:

Take an ounce of bear’s fat, half an ounce of badger’s grease, half an ounce of snake’s fat, one ounce of almond oil, and a quarter of an ounce of pulverized indigo, and melt it altogether in a new vessel over a fire, stir it well, and put it afterward into some vessel. In using it, a lump as large as a common nut must be put upon a piece of woollen cloth and then rubbed on the barrel and lock of the gun, and it will keep the barrel from rusting. (#110)

Wild animal fat has mostly gone out of use, though it can occasionally still be found, particularly in the mountain regions of America.

10) Bear/Badger/Other Teeth – These curios are usually gambling, luck, or protection charms. Hohman mentions the badger’s tooth as a wonderful gambling talisman. Bear teeth appear in protective necklaces (along with claws in many cases). One of Vance Randolph’s stories from the Ozarks recounts a man who kept a big boar’s tooth on a leather thong over his fireplace. Whenever any of his children would get a toothache, he’d make them wear the necklace until the pain went away. These charms are common in many places, and hardly unique to the New World (the badger is an Old World animal, after all). Plenty of places, including the wonderful site The Bone Room, sell teeth, bones, and other animal curious for use in crafts, magical or otherwise.

I think that will end our survey for today. There are still plenty of parts and pieces I’ve missed, including gator paws and heads, various animal skins, porcupine quills, and the myriad insect charms that could still be discussed (and hopefully will be at some future date or dates—ants alone obviously have plenty of magical uses). If you can think of other charms, I’d love to hear them, and feel free to share your folklore regarding animal remnants and magic in the comments section!

Until next time, thanks for reading!

-Cory

Blog Post 97 – Shop Recommendations

While we get our Etsy shop slowly up to speed (there are more products on the way soon, I promise!), I thought I’d take today to recommend a couple of sites where you can find fantastically witchy supplies. I’ve had good, long conversations with both shop owners and found them to be incredibly knowledgeable about their products and about magic in general. Without further ado, here they are:

Forest Grove Botanica – The store of Sarah, the Witch of Forest Grove, whom we’ve had on our show before. Now, I’ve linked to her shop in the past, but as of yesterday, she launched her site independently, so it no longer relies on Etsy to provide transactions and listings. And it looks like she has really been expanding her wares, too. She’s including all sorts of wonderful products, like Witches’ Salves, herbal smokes, oils, potions, and incenses. I’ve already placed my first order, and I’m sure I’ll be getting lots more from her in the future (especially once she gets her Art section up and running).

Alchemy Arts – This is the store I mentioned from the Chicago-land area in Podcast 17 (and which I incorrectly called “Alchemy Works,” sorry!). I seriously spent a lot of time and money in this shop, and I wish I could have spent more of both there. This was a phenomenal place, and the owner really knows his stuff. If you’re in the area, stop by. Or you can call him and he’ll help you get exactly what you need at a fair price.

If you have favorite shops you’d like to recommend, please comment and do so (if you can provide links, that’s helpful, too)!

Thanks for reading!

-Cory

Blog Post 95 – Critters (Magical Animals, Part I)

Hi everyone!

A recent episode of 5-Star Spells discussed the use of animals in magic. The Lovely Sarah over at Forest Grove also did an excellent post on the use of bones in magic (a topic I’m also working on but which will probably not be nearly as comprehensive as her fantastic article). Gillian’s creature-feature over at Iron Powaqa has also gotten me thinking more and more about animals and their use or place within magical work.

I’ve covered animals a bit before (see my post on Snakes for example) and I’ll likely continue to explore those individual species in other articles, but today I thought I’d tackle the topic generally. When animals appear in American magical lore, which ones crop up most often? Are they alive or dead? Are their parts used in magic (like the Rabbit’s Foot), or do they themselves represent something more significant as whole, intact creatures?

American Magical Animals

There are a number of animals that show up repeatedly in North American magical lore. In fact, there are few animals which are not associated in some way with magic. For the sake of keeping this entry simple, however, let’s look at some of the most common and popular creatures:

Cat – The ubiquitous black cat of magical lore appears in all sorts of stories. Patrick W. Gainer relates a tale about a witch who turns herself into a cat and then murders the men her father hires to work in his mill. In Spooky South, S. E. Schlosser describes a blacksmith whose wife slips in and out of a catskin every night until he outwits her by salting her human skin while she’s away. There’s also the story of the Wampus Cat, a fearsome cat-like beast which terrified Native Americans and early colonists in the Southern Appalachians. And of course, the powerful magical charm of the black cat bone has been discussed on the blog and podcast before. There are probably dozens, if not hundreds, of cat-related stories connected to witchcraft and magic in North America, and while having a black cat weaving about one’s feet certainly isn’t a requirement for witchery, it does seem to be encouraged.

Dogs/Coyotes/Wolves – Everyone knows about Jack London’s Call of the Wild and White Fang, with their requisite images of the faithful companion to the bold pioneers and adventurers on the frontier. So it should come as little surprise that dogs and their relatives show up in magical lore here, too. The Native American trickster spirit, Coyote, remains a popular figure in storytelling (and as fodder for Roadrunner cartoons). Black dog hair is used in hoodoo spells, sometimes in conjunction with black cat hair. The famous “Man in Black” at the crossroads in hoodoo lore sometimes appears as a black dog, too:

“Well, people say yo’ meet de devil, but tell de truth ’bout de thing, ah don’t know if it wus de devil or not. It wus a black something othah jes’ ’bout dat high — sorta mind me of a dog. He had han’s lak a dog when ah fus’ seen him but fust and last his han’ wus jes’ lak mine only it wus jes’ as hot as could be.” From the work of Harry M. Hyatt [Fayetteville, North Carolina, (1438), 2581:1.]

There are also a number of stories from all around the country related to ghostly black or white dogs who presage death or misfortune. These seem to be similar to the “Black Shuck” dogs found in English folklore (and which served as a roundabout inspiration for the Sherlock Holmes tale “The Hound of the Baskervilles”). Wolves show up from time to time in Northern and Pacific Northwestern lore, though they usually do not have the fearsome associations found in European stories but rather serve as guides or helpers to lost or wounded folks. Though the element of danger sometimes hovers around the magical canine, for the most part they seem to act as allies to magical folk in North America.

Snakes – As I said earlier, I’ve posted on snakes before, but a quick rehash can’t hurt. The reputation of the serpent in North America seems to have been tainted by the negative impressions of it transmitted through Christianity. Yet it remains one of the most significant magical animals in American magic, too. Even some Christians engage in ceremonies with snakes, handling them as a test of faith in accordance with Mark 16: 17-18. Marie Laveau was known to dance with a large snake called Zombi during her famous St. John’s Eve celebrations in New Orleans (described in Zora Neale Hurston’s Mules and Men), thus cementing the serpent into the NOLA Voodoo tradition. Snake parts are common in magical practice, with rattlesnake rattles being lucky and the shed skins and eggs being useful for cursing and negative work. I like using snakes myself, as I enjoy their chthonic symbolism and ambivalent quality. I remember making a rather nice Damballah altar jar for a friend containing a long snakeskin and bones, inscribed with the lwa’s veve on the front—it was beautiful and felt like it radiated power when I finished it. So yeah, I’ve got a fondness for the slithery beasts. At least, when I’m wearing boots I do.

Spiders/Insects– Moving from one creepy-crawlie thing to another, bugs show up a bit in the magical lore of North America, too. In The Silver Bullet, by Hubert J. Davis, one witch uses a little black beetle as her familiar, traveling with it in and out of keyholes. Much like snake eggs, spider eggs are used to create the “Live Things in You” spells so greatly feared in hoodoo work, as described in Yronwode’s Hoodoo Herb & Root Magic. Anansi, a powerful spirit and/or deity imported from West Africa, appears in the magical lore of places like Florida and the Coastal South, where he was sometimes transformed into another magical creature on this list—the rabbit. This shift in emphasis may be explained by several factors. According to Newbell Puckett:

Only the spider, a great favorite in African folk-lore, has been almost entirely dropped from the folk-tales of the Negro, and this may perhaps be due to a falling away of African religious beliefs, since on the Gold Coast the spider is regarded as the Creator of all men, and is supposed to speak through the nose as the local demons are said to do. It also may be that the spiders of the South, being smaller and less terrifying than the African type, have caused that creature to lose its prestige. (Folk Beliefs…, p.34)

Vance Randolph also mentions spiders and insects as being connected to weather lore: they either swarm into the house before a big storm, or if a spider is crushed in the home it can cause a dry spell of seven days. Finally, there’s a curious little rhyme mentioned by Patrick W. Gainer which can help one find lost objects:

“Spitter, Spitter, spider, tell me wher that (name of the article) is and I’ll give you a drink of cider” (p. 125).

There are plenty of other little bits of lore regarding six-and-eight-legged creatures, but I’ll save those for a longer entry sometime in the future.

I’m going to stop here for today, but we’re not done with magical creatures yet, by any stretch of the imagination. If you have animal lore you’d like to share about any of the creatures mentioned so far, though, please do!

Thanks for reading!

-Cory

Blog Post 93 – Sneak Peek

Hi everyone!

Today I’ve got a few photos of things to tease and entice you. We’ve got something happening in the very near future and I wanted to let you blog readers be the first to know about it. You can probably guess from the pictures what the announcement will be.

Be watching for an update soon! Until then, thanks for reading!

-Cory

Blog Post 91 – Some Weekend Reading

Hi all!

I’ve not got a long or involved post to share today, just some links to articles of interest. The first two are about a recently excavated site in Maryland which turned up a football-sized “spirit bundle” with some very clear African magical paraphernalia inside of it. Finds like this are not exactly rare, but neither are they well documented at this point, so it’s fun to see American magic (or rather, African magic in America) getting some attention from the scientific press. As a bonus, the location of the burial was once apparently a crossroads! Neat!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081021120755.htm
http://www.archaeology.org/0005/newsbriefs/hoodoo.html

The last link I have for you today is about Brice House, an historical site (also in Maryland) in which a number of interesting magical and spiritual artifacts have been found. Known as a “hoodoo cache,” the dig revealed a bottle and several pierced coins buried in an “X” pattern near a bricked up doorway. It’s pretty cool stuff!

http://www.bsos.umd.edu/anth/aia/james_brice_house.htm

Special thanks to Rebecca on the Traditional Witchcraft Yahoo! Group for passing those links along!

Enjoy your weekend, and thanks for reading!

-Cory

Blog Post 87 – Podcast Recommendation

Hi everyone!

I promise I will eventually get the rest of the cartomancy thread and look at how to do an actual reading, but I’ve not had time to take the photos I want to use for that yet. So today, I wanted to recommend something I only found last week. It’s a podcast called “5-Star Spells” and it’s found on BlogTalk Radio. For those who don’t know about BlogTalk, it’s a phone-in format open radio site that lets people broadcast their shows without having podcasting equipment. The radio shows go out live at specific times, then get recorded and transferred to a podcast feed for posterity (and for those of us who just prefer podcasts).

5-Star Spells is a show with a group of some of the most talented and knowledgeable root workers and readers around. I’ll get into them individually in a moment, but as a whole they represent some of the best minds, hearts, and hands in the conjure business today. What’s even better, they all interact like family, with a tremendous amount of positivity towards each other, even when it’s clear they aren’t exactly alike. They pass on lots of useful information, a good bit of personal philosophy (anecdotally, which is my favorite way to get philosophy), and a lot of laughter, which is pretty refreshing, actually. Oraia Sphinx actually tipped me off to them at almost the exact same time I had downloaded their first episode, so that was serendipitious, I thought. The show’s most frequent callers are:

Rev. Mother Susan Asselin – The show’s primary host, she operates out of a Little Italy-style neighborhood in Providence, RI. She and Sindy Todo refer to each other as “cousins” as they recently discovered they share some branches on their family trees. I’ll be honest and say I probably know the least about Mother Asselin, but from what I hear on the show, she’s knowledgeable, spirit-filled, and wise. Her website is called MotherMystic.

Dara Anzlowar – The owner of HoodooRoots.com, and the owner and manufacturer of Hoodoo Roots and Folk-Magic Traditional Spiritual Supplies. She also runs two Yahoo groups, Hyatt Spells and Conjure. I’ve followed Dara’s posts in those groups for a while now, and having a voice to put with the brilliant insights is very nice. She works in a very traditional style, and provides a strong traditionalist viewpoint in the discussions that come up on the show, though she is also immensely cordial and kind in conversation.

Susan Diamond – She owns the Serpents Kiss occult shop and co-owns the 2Hoodoos site with Orion Foxwood. She has a very sweet disposition on the show, but also provides a lot of interesting information (listen for her contributions in the Family Folklore episode). She and Orion provide the most “pagan” voices on the program, but they also have some very traditional leanings as well. She offers a wide variety of services and products, so check her out. She’s also a member of the Association of Independent Readers and Rootworkers (AIRR).

Orion Foxwood – I know many folks already know who Orion is, but there are probably a number of people who don’t. The sole regular male voice on the show, Orion grew up in the southern Appalachian Mountains surrounded by the magical and mystical traditions of the area. He says he was born with a caul (also called a “veil” sometimes) which is commonly associated with having second sight or visions. He’s published several books on his Faery Seership tradition, and has a bevy of websites including the aforementioned 2Hoodoos, the House of Brigh, and the Foxwood Temple of the Old Religion.

“Auntie” Sindy Todo – One of my favorite voices on the show, Sindy Todo provides sass, humor, warmth, and a heckuva lot of good information on 5-Star Spells. She always has something nice to say, blessings to pass out, and good news to share. She is based in Seattle, and has a website called Todo Mojo which offers her magical services. She’s also a member of AIRR, and seems like one of the most genuinely likeable people I’ve ever heard.

Starr – A Texas based conjure woman working in the old-style tradition, Starr is another favorite voice of mine (they’re all wonderful in their own ways, of course! I just have a thing for sassy women with southern accents). She specializes in spiritual cleansings and also is one of the foremost experts on working with the Native American spirit Black Hawk. She doesn’t appear on every show, but when she’s on, she’s a great participant and a wonderful resource for good, solid hoodoo information. She’s a member of AIRR, too, and operates a website called Old Style Conjure.

One of the most amazing things about this group of folks is that they all get on so well. Well enough, in fact, that they’re all getting together in November for a weekend of conjure classes and socializing! I’m hoping to provide more info about this sometimes oon, but for now you can read all about it at the Traditional Folk Magic Festival website. And you can hear all about it on 5-Star Spells, which, again, I highly recommend.

Okay, that’s it for my recommendation today! I hope you can forgive the delay in the cartomancy finale, but I’ll have that soon. Until then, thanks for reading!

-Cory

Podcast 14 – An Interview with Cat Yronwode

-SHOWNOTES FOR EPISODE 14-

Summary
Today we are truly blessed to have an interview with renowned rootworker and teacher Catherine Yronwode of the Lucky Mojo Co. Then we briefly discuss Christianity in hoodoo. Laine tells us about Magical Soap in WitchCraft, and Cory talks about Spiritual Cleansing Baths in Spelled Out.

Play:

Download: New World Witchery – Episode 14

-Sources-
Some of Cat’s many wonderful sites:
Lucky Mojo – Her main site and online store
Lucky W Amulet Archive – A repository of info on lucky charms
Southern Spirits – Her site on Southern folklore and history
Arcane Archive – An archive of magical lore and practice from around the net
YIPPIE – The Yronwode Institute for the Preservation and Popularization of Indigenous Ethnomagicology
Herb Magic – A site on magical plants and roots
Missionary Independent Spiritual Church – The world’s smallest church, and part of the long tradition of Spiritual Churches in the United States
Association of Independent Readers and Rootworkers (AIRR) – A body of trained, professional rootworkers with experience and accountability
Hoodoo and Rootwork Course – One of the definitive training programs in traditional hoodoo
And, of course, her book Hoodoo Herb & Root Magic is often referenced on the blog and in the show.

Cory also reference’s Draja Mickaharic’s Spiritual Cleansing, a definitive guide on the topic.

Promos & Music
Title music: “Homebound,” by Jag, from Cypress Grove Blues. From Magnatune.
Promo 1- Inciting a Riot
Promo 2- Pagan in the Threshold

Blog Post 81 – Van Van Oil

Greetings everyone! Today, I’m going to cover another piece of our recent Lucky 13 podcast: Van Van oil. This is one of the most common hoodoo oils around, and actually shows up in other places fairly often, too. Because it is made from grasses found in Southeast Asia, it has a long history in medicine and magic from those areas. Some of the grasses used in Van Van are also grown in West Africa, which is likely one route through which Southern conjure practices adopted this formula.

The basic ingredients in a Van Van blend are oils from:

Lemongrass
Citronella
Vetiver (also called “khus” grass in some places)
Palmarosa & Gingergrass (the same plant, but the oil pressing process is different)

Most of these are not easily available in bulk herb form, with the exceptions of lemongrass (which you can find at almost any Asian market) and vetiver (which can often be found in herb or metaphysical shops). All of the oils except gingergrass are readily available from any aromatherapy or herbal extract dealer. Gingergrass oil, which can be hard to find, is often left out of homemade Van Van recipes, or something else might be substituted for it.

The proportions heavily favor lemongrass in the recipes I’ve seen, almost to the point of exclusivity. There are some who solely use lemongrass oil and add dried botanicals to it in order to round out the recipe. Generally speaking, a home blender would use:

5-10 parts lemongrass oil
3-5 parts citronella oil
2-3 parts vetiver root or oil
1 part palmarosa
1 part gingergrass

All of these would be carefully blended in a sterile jar, then topped with a carrier oil (sweet almond or jojoba would be excellent). The proportions above are merely suggestions, and you would do well to contact a trained herbalist before blending these on your own. In reality, you might be able to use just the first three oils and have some pretty solid Van Van oil, so don’t spend loads of money tracking down rare herbal ingredients unless you really feel compelled to do so.

Additions to the recipe vary by practitioner and region. For example, in New Orleans, one might find lemon verbena added to the mix. In fact, this may be how the formula got its name. According to Cat Yronwode, Creole rootworkers would sometimes use lemon verbena in their blends in order to supplement the strong lemon-musk scent of the oil. Verbena—a related herb—was often called vervain, and that was given a pidgin phoneme of “van van.” The name does NOT have anything to do with vanilla, which is not found in any traditional recipes for this formula. Judika Illes, whom we’ve referenced several times before, suggests adding another wild Asian grass—patchouli—to the blend, but I’ve never done this myself (I’m not a fan of patchouli, personally). Other additions might include pyrite chips or “lucky” things like four leaf clover charms (which can also be anointed with Van Van and carried for luck).

So just what is Van Van oil for and how does it work? Well, it’s considered a sort of ultimate luck formula, having sway over money, prosperity, gambling, love, and anything else that might need a little luck. It’s often used to anoint talismans—like the rabbit’s foot—or mojo hands made for gambling or love. As for how it works, lemongrass (and all citrus grasses) has a powerful “cut and clear” effect…think of how many lemon-scented cleaning agents there are. They just make things seem cleaner (lemon also has some antibacterial/antimicrobial properties, and is a potent preservative in small doses—sliced apples are often treated with a lemon juice extract to keep them from browning). Citronella does something similar (think of how citronella candles, torches, and oils repel nasty insects like mosquitoes). These grasses cut and clear any negative influences, warding off bad luck. Palmarosa and gingergrass (which come from the same plant, in reality, Cymbopogon martine) are muskier, and so have a slight sexual connotation. If you think of something being clean, bright, and sexy, it’s not hard to imagine lucky in the mix, too (think James Bond in a casino). Vetiver is the muskiest of all, with strong earthy tones. Earth has connections to abundance and prosperity (think of fertile black soil planted with seeds which grow into crops), plus there is a strong sexual current again. Sex + money + nothing standing in your way? Yeah, I’d say that’s pretty lucky.

A few quick notes:

Magico-botanical notes come primarily from Cat Yronwode’s book, Hoodoo Herb & Root Magic.

You can find Van Van oils at the Lucky Mojo Co., Music City Mojo, Toads Bone Apotheca, Queen of Pentacles Conjure, The Conjure Doctor, and just about any botanica or root shop around.

That’s it for today. Thanks for reading!

-Cory

Blog Post 80 – Horseshoes

Following in the vein of recent posts, today I’m looking at another luck charm: the horseshoe. One thing Laine and I discussed in Podcast 13 was that the horseshoe seems to be a rather ubiquitous talisman. It is so ubiquitous, in fact, that many folks may not even realize it has any magical connotation at all. In an article from Western Folklore entitled “Lucky Horseshoes,” Jeannine E. Talley writes:

The horseshoe as a bestower of luck is so frequently encountered that it has become a cliche, but at the same time an isolated belief without a context. Barnet’s comment that the mule has been “pounding it full of luck” provides not only the ‘logic’ explaining why the horseshoe is full of luck but also reveals that luck is ac-cumulative. His insistence that the old nails must be used to hang the shoe is not found in standard collections for folk belief, but is akin to the notion that if the hardware is hung with prongs down, the luck will “run out.” This instance is a prime example that collecting the item is not enough; the contextual background of any item is of equal importance since it often contains the rationale which makes the belief credible. (p. 129)

I like this particular examination of the horseshoe because it details two points: 1) the horseshoe’s luck comes from its association with the horse itself and 2) as Talley states, the luck is accumulative, so the longer a shoe has been on a horse, the luckier it is.

Of course, there are plenty of other theories about why a horseshoe might be lucky. Robert M. Lawrence, in his article, “The Folk-Lore of the Horseshoe” describes the horseshoe as a talismanic emblem with many possible folkloric connections, including:

The Jewish Passover – like blood spread on doorposts/lintels and rowan trees in Scotland
Serpent emblem – “In front of a church in Crendi, a town in the southern part of the island of Malta, there is to be seen a statue having at its feet a protective symbol in the shape of a half-moon encircled by a snake”
Moon emblem – “the brass crescent, an avowed charm against the evil eye, is very commonly attached to the elaborately decorated harnesses of Neapolitan draught horses, and is used in the East to embellish the trappings of elephants.”
Phallic Emblem of some kind
Prong-shamed talisman – like protective horns of animals (connected to African symbols)
Horse as Sacred Animal (as mentioned above)
Iron as “Virtuous” metal capable of dispelling harmful forces (Journal of American Folklore, v.9, n.35, 1896, p. 288-292)

I hope to get into some of these symbols and ideas in other posts at another time—particularly iron, which shows up a lot in fairy doctoring practices and other magical systems—so for now I think it suffices to say that horseshoes have a lot of lore to build upon and are quite lucky, though no one seems to know exactly why they are so.

So how does one use horseshoes? First of all, the shoe needs to be one which actually has been on a horse at some point (remember all that pounding of luck into it in Jeannine Talley’s article?). Likewise, there are some who say that hanging a horseshoe involves using a spent horseshoe nail, too. That seems to be a slightly less stringent requirement, but if you happen to have a spare horseshoe nail with your horseshoe, why not use it?

The issue of which way the “horns” of the shoe are pointing seems to be hotly contested by those who concern themselves with such things. Both opinions seem to have some sound reasoning behind them, which I mentioned in the most recent podcast. The general idea boils down to whether you think the horns up are “holding in the luck” or whether the horns down are “pouring the luck out on you.” Either way, I think this is where instinct kicks in. If you feel like you’ve hung it the “wrong way,” you probably have and you should switch it. But if you feel like your luck’s in good condition and your horseshoe’s “right,” then leave it be.

As to how specifically a horseshoe might be used, Harry M. Hyatt has a few examples of horseshoes in hoodoo work:

1) From Vol.2,p.1547

NAIL A HORSESHOE UP
OVER YOUR FRONT DOOR.
NAIL A PENNY DOWN IN THE FRONT
DOOR TOO. SCRUB IT ALL THE TIME.*
THESE WILL BRING YOU GOOD LUCK.

Dey kin use a horseshoe. Yo’ take a horseshoe an’ yo’ kin nail it up
ovah yore front do’ an’ take a penny an’ nail it down in de front do’; an’
yo’ jes’ let dat penny stay dere all de time an’ yo’ scrub ovah dat penny
all de time, an’ jes’ leave it dere an’ dat’ll be good luck fo’ yo’.
[Savannah, GA; Madam Pauline; Informant #1274. C575:1-C586:10 = 2136-2167.]

2) From Vol.2,p.1443

A HORSESHOE OVER THE DOOR
KEEPS SPOOKS OUT AND BRINGS LUCK.
& A MULESHOE OVER THE DOOR OF A BUSINESS
BRINGS BUSINESS SUCCESS

Keep a horseshoe – keep it ovah de do’ to keep de spook outa dere an’
fo’ luck, specially a man who does business. He’d have a new [mule] shoe ovah
de do’ – like he do’s a business roun’ in a shop or a restaurant or somepin
lak dat, because a mule is a hard-workin’ thing, hard-workin’. All right.
An’ jes’ lak ah’d have de mule when he hitch out an’ go to his stall to
eat, people be coming to his place and say….
[Sumter, SC; Informant #1387; Cylinders C885:1-C902:4 = 2366-2383]

(Both of these can be found in Hyatt’s book or in the excellent Yahoo! Group “HyattSpells”)

I like the first example because it combines the lucky penny with the lucky horseshoe, and places luck at your head and your feet, so every time you enter a door, you get caught between the two and get a double dose of luck. I also like the rationale for using a mule shoe to boost business (because the mule is so hard-working).

Finally, Vance Randolph describes the Ozark methods of horseshoe deployment in Ozark Magic & Folklore:

Most hillfolk of my acquaintance use a horseshoe instead of the stone (to protect chickens from hawks), and some think that a muleshoe is even better. It is frequently fastened in the firebox of the stove rather than in the oven. In the old days the muleshoe was hung up in the fireplace, or even set into the mortar at the back of the chimney (p. 43)
Many hillfolk think that the man who finds a horseshoe with the closed end toward him will do well to “leave it lay.” If the open end is toward the finder, he sometimes spits on it and throws it over his left shoulder, a procedure which is supposed to bring good fortune. Or he may place it in a tree or on a fence,saying: “Hang thar, all my bad luck!” In this case, whoever touches the hanging horseshoe falls heir to the misfortune of the man who placed it there (p. 62)
Probably the commonest way to keep witches out of the house is to nail a horseshoe over the door; this is regarded as a sort of general prophylactic against witches, bad luck, contagious disease, and other evil influences (p. 283)

So that’s the lucky horseshoe. Another long article, so I apologize for that, but hopefully you aren’t too bored. Skimming is probably a good skill to apply when reading these blogs. At any rate, if you have any questions or comments about horseshoes, please feel free to post them!

As always, thanks for reading!

-Cory

Podcast 13 – Lucky 13

-SHOWNOTES FOR EPISODE 13-

Summary
On this, our Lucky 13^th episode, released on Friday the 13^th, we’re looking at luck charms and where they come from. We’ve also got a money bowl spell in WitchCraft, and Van Van oil in Spelled Out.

Play:

Download: New World Witchery – Episode 13